Surely, I've Done Something Right
by Coffin Liqueur
Summary: Ultimate Talent Development Plan-verse. Originally written for Nov. 27th. After thinking she was going to have to celebrate her birthday as a one-woman party, Ibuki gets a little surprise from her thoughtful fellow musicians.


It was pretty much how it always went.

Ever since she left the old band.

She couldn't blame no-body no-how. She never really slowed down these days to tell people when such an important date as her birthday - _ official Ibuki Day! Dios Mio-Day! _ \- was comin' up until it was already there and… right upon 'em.

Hee-hee - what would they need a nice big heads-up for, anyway? So's they could have all the time in the world to get her a present worthy of a Birthday Goddess? (Y'know - because Ibuki was a rock goddess!) Even with a whooooole year to prepare, she understood that trying to pay just the right kind of tribute to a girl with finely-honed, elegantly-niche tastes such as Ibuki was surely one tall, intimidating order!

That musta been why she tended not to get anything!

(Heh - all the more reason she couldn't blame them was that as much as she was sure what she liked, she had to admit: she, herself, often didn't quite know what she wanted. Every wishlist she'd attempted to write in the past had quickly become a looooooong string a' cross-outs and repeats and cross-outs and repeats and repeats and repeats and question marks.)

Besides, she was used to doing everything in her own power to make sure she had an _ awesomesauce day _. And she was good at it - the best in the biz at it. No one better to make sure she did, in fact, have one heck of a happy D.o.B.

She was a _ juggernaut _ of fun.

She was such an expert that _ you know what - ? _

...She could throw herself a surprise party on her own!

\- And no, she actually _ did. _

She'd rigged up one of the Academy music rooms to set off streamers bursting and those silly cartoon-y kazoo noises when they go off for the first person to enter - and Ibuki was good at catchin' the worm. Ha ha… she got a li'l bonus surprise in there, too, on top of jumpscaring herself! She couldn't really remember putting Monomi up to helping out - ...but there Monomi'd been, standing right by the door, timidly wishing her a good one under a shower of pink and blue confetti and iridescent skull cutouts.

It was the little things like that big hot afterburn on sucking in a gasp all harder and louder than a concert kick-off number (_ "Did _ Monomi _ set this up?!" _ she'd gasped! _ "Did Monomi go out of her way to set _ all _ this messy nonsense up in the middle of the night single-handedly just to throw little old Ibuki a big birthday bash?!" _ ...and then squawked a laugh on the bright _ now-I-remember _ flash! when Monomi told her that, no, she'd simply found the room like that, and realized what was going on) that could absolutely make a day.

It'd blown up in her chest, warmth inside it and all. Been set to be in good spirits the rest of the day as soon as she plopped down on the stool in the corner to sing herself _ Ibukiiiii Tanjyouuubiiiii _ , solo'd on her guitar with her tongue out, and ate a breakfast of slightly-stale cake. ( _ Ahhh… _ the perils of setting up a party for yourself before leaving for the dorms at the end of a day so you can walk in with it all ready-to-go the next morning! At least the ants hadn't gotten to it!

Maybe Hiyoko, Ultimate Tiny Exterminator, was to thank for that!)

And, well… she was.

The day was special by virtue of being _ the day _. Bright and shining and happy.

There was all the more of a li'l hop in her step. She hummed and lilted improvised tunes. (She could jazz it up with the best of 'em!) She singsonged every greeting extra loud, was also the quicker to take off gambolling or pull off a little prank. Heh… Hajime asked her why she seemed so happy today. And so did Sayaka, and Chiaki, and Kaede…!

She either told 'em that she had cake for breakfast _ (wink-wink!) _ or asked 'em _ wait, was she? Is being the happy and peppy and fun one not Ibuki's brand? _

Riddles and secrets - the kinds a' things it was fun for other people not to know.

She treated herself about five more times. No, ten, twenty… a dozen! (..._ Times _ twenty!) Took a nice long walk and felt that orange autumn sunlight both in and out.

And now… held it in her chest alone with the cool navy and ice-crystal starlight wind on her skin where it showed on her arms.

Strumming away, as she did - feelin' the acoustic, at the moment. She nodded and plucked along, composing, whistling to herself hither and thither like an anthropomorphic dog at a train station. (She wouldn't make the direct joke to herself - that was Chiaki's job. It was her job to set it up.

...Except Chiaki wasn't here.)

...Her mouth suddenly lined.

She looked up from her pluckings. On out over at the whole… end-of-the-day-ness of that skyline. How big and wide and open and black it was.

...It kinda cooled out that whole big-happy-morning feeling.

Her eyebrows knit slightly. Half-roofed and half-slanted.

_ Another good day done, Ibuki, huh…? The factory's closin' up for the night - it was fun while it lasted! ...On to take the next one. _

_ Tomorrow will be another fun one, too! _

...Line of sight drifted downward. Semi-blank. Her face stared neutrally.

_ Just another day. _

...Her nails plucked at the strings on and on.

...Till she jumped in tandem with the first sound a' Sayaka's voice behind her saying _ there you are, Ibuki…! _

It was like she'd been electrocuted! All her muscles froze the heck up and her back shot straight! Her teeth locked and grit at the nasty chord she'd been jolted into playing!

Heck, she bet her hair was all fluffed up like a static-charged pussycat's, too as she _ twisted stiffly to look behind her…! Heart hammering a million miles a minute…! _

...As Sayaka stepped up through the girls' dorms' roof access door. Eyes wide open, mouth about halfway so. Kaede was right behind her - a slight, warm smile on her face. Sister-like! (That was the way big sisters looked at, like… playful littler kids, right?)

(There was a _ clack _somewhere between them.)

"We probably should have known you'd be out here practicing," Kaede said. A little shimmer of a likewise-warm laugh to it. "Once we passed by your room and you weren't there…"

"Am I in trouble?" Ibuki asked. It… heh, squeaked and squeezed around the edges a bit. Wrung itself all nice and thin and high and worked the corners of her still-dang-tight-bitten-mouth up higher. "What did you two go setting out in the middle of the night hunting Ibuki for…?"

"It's only nine." Kaede trailed, just a tad…!

Aaaaaas meanwhile, Sayaka laced her hands in front of herself. Shook her head - hair tossing like satiny ribbons. "Mm-mm. It's…" Her eyebrows roofed, a teeny bit. "...it's sort of the opposite."

Ibuki let her head fall tilted.

Kaede's smile… _ poofed _as the two stepped up.

Ibuki's head tilted deeper.

_So serious._

"...We found all that stuff you left in the music room," said Sayaka. "Why didn't you tell anyone what day it was?"

Pffheh… How funny it was when you got put on the spot for that kind of thing, wasn't it?

Something makes total sense to you the entire time you're doing it.

Then you get caught and it just panic-snaps to a nebulous, vague, _ I guess I just didn't want to _ or _ because I felt like I shouldn't _ or just… _ because…! _

Ibuki laughed like a freezing hyena - couldn't tell if the cold spots on her face were currents of air or sweat. She pressed and played at her guitar's strings with the pads of her fingers - they _ creaaak - creaaaaked - ! _ "...I didn't tell anyone it was _ what _day…?" A little warble to her tone at the end. "...You don't know Ibuki was throwin' a birthday party in there… You don't even know it was a birthday party!"

It's not givin' it away when _ come on. You know they know. Or think they know. They don't have to know you know they know. And if you don't know… they can only be wrong in thinking they know you know. _

Kaede laughed once. Back to smiling all big-sis-like and polite. "The decorations were things like your favorite colors, and skulls and crossbones… plus we found candles in the garbage can…"

"And… actually, Monomi told us." Sayaka had begun smiling, now, too. Cute-and-dainty-cheery. "She told us you'd talked to her… and apparently, you'd thrown a birthday party for yourself."

Ibuki _ flicked _a lick between her lips. Breathed a "heh…"

"...Well… so what if I _ did…? _" she said. Smiling. Still warbling. "Sometimes, if you want something done, you gotta grab life by the horns, right…?" A giggle… bounced in her chest like it was a hiccup. She shut her eyes into it. " - And Ibuki's got those, too!"

Sayaka and Kaede acted without another word or sound. Not a look at her or at each other.

"Well… the two of us were thinking that we'd like to do something, too."

They sat down on front of (behind…?) her on the rooftop, perching on their knees.

Kaede brought a brown case out from behind her - another clack. Set it on her lap.

Ibuki's eyelashes butterfly-fluttered in a pointed, weighty blink as she opened it.

A portable piano keyboard.

Her mouth opened just a bit. Just enough for… her _ breathing in _ to _ feel _like a question. Not quite an "eh?" Her eyes flicked between the two.

Just as Sayaka looked up. Beaming and bright-eyed.

"...While there are still a couple of hours in the day!" she said. A happy ring to it like a bell. "How about we have a nightly concert in your honor?"

Kaede chuckled. Her eyes, too, now back on Ibuki. "...Starring you!"

"Would you still like to celebrate a little longer? ...With your friends?"

Ibuki's heart had picked up again.

She could hear its pumps in her ears - muffled beats on a massive pair of drums. Soundwaves themselves wrapped in felt an velvet. Strikes coming deeper, deeper, deeper.

...Rising the blood in her system… warmer and higher. It fluttered. It moved. It vibrated. And it rose.

...A swell of that bright, joyous morning feeling again - expanding clear, and fresh, and sweet, as she puffed her chest up, and up and out.

Smiling with something not quite a pride but a savor of that warm and its at-the-fringes _ tingle _.

"...Far be it from Ibuki to let a party _ die _ ," she said. In her throat came another spike, and she said, like a laugh, along a merry-merry-fluting melody, "I say, _ hell, yeah! _

"Let's get this special private show on, girls!"

_ The day ain't over yet…! _

_ Looks like I've got a special, special surprise present to dig into after all first! _ _ And it's _ even cooler _ than _ anything _ I could have told anyone that I wanted. _

* * *

Originally written and posted to AO3 for Nov. 27th - Ibuki Day, itself!

Ha, I'm very late now bringing it over here - but I hope you've enjoyed, whoever you are and whenever you're peekin', nonetheless! 8,)a


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